march

The cancellation of this year's TMAs, as it turned out, was only the beginning of a much bigger challenge in this leadership - Coronavirus Disease 2019. Also known as COVID-19, this month had seen a widespread transmission of the virus to almost all countries and has since turned into a pandemic everyone became scared of.

In spite of this, following their music show promotions (and Yoongi's birthday), BTS went on a post-Lumiere absence for 20 days - the first for 2020. I used the time to work on my initial plans after February's long planned event.

You know, two months passed since they last disappeared. It felt weird to say this.. but I actually missed not seeing them! I was only not able to not see them in 2020 because of Lumiere. I had to monitor their promotions for MOTS7, and I had to keep track of their social media activity if ever we may need something for Lumiere promo. Now that the event was over, it should be time for me to catch up with what I never had the chance to do. But….  things had to change.

As cases rise and more countries around the world have transmitted the disease, many states were having difficulty containing the disease. As a result, social distancing was observed - stores were closed, many workplaces have shifted to work from home, mass gatherings were discouraged and many events were cancelled or rescheduled, including BTS's Map of the Soul tour which was supposed to be held on April. This.. is what many of us now call the ‘new normal’.

In our case, the government had placed our country in Enhanced Community Quarantine. In other words, we had been placed under a lockdown.

And it had to be done while the boys were gone.

It took 20 days of anxiety, worry and concern for the boys' health - 20 days of not only caring anymore about how much I missed from them and how much they may have missed, but 20 days of wondering if they were safe, and 20 days of sometimes regretting my decision to have them gone at that kind of time - only to get to that day, March 30.

These 20 days - unlike the previous ones, it was no longer about missed and reached; it was about whether or not they are ok. Transmission of COVID-19 grew worse at that time, knowing how their country South Korea was once an epicentre of the pandemic. In those 20 days, instead of missing them I was worried if they were also on lockdown, or if they even contracted the disease.

Then March 30 came, and turns out, they were ok.